Toy having capacitance switch

ABSTRACT

A SELF-PROPELLED MOTORIZED TOY WHOSE MOVEMENT IS CONTROLLED BY THE DISTANCE BETWEEN IT AND ANOTHER OBJECT, SUCH AS A HUMAN OPERATOR. A TRANSISTOR OSCILLATOR, RESONANT TANK CIRCUIT, CAPACITIVE DEVICE WHOSE CAPACITANCE IS DETERMINED BY THE DISTANCE BETWEEN IT AND THE OBJECT CONNECTED TO THE RESONANT TANK CIRCUIT, AND A TRANSISTORIZED AMPLIFIER ARE CONNECTED TOGETHER IN SUCH A MANNER THAT THE INCREASE OR DECREASE IN CAPACITANCE OF THE CAPACITIVE DEVICE CAUSES A DECREASE OR INCREASE IN THE INPUT SIGNAL APPLIED TO THE AMLIFIER. THE AMPLIFIER IS CONNECTED TO A RELAY SWITCH WHICH IN A FIRST STATE DIRECTS CURRENT FROM A POWER SOURCE TO A MOTOR WHICH OPERATES TO MOVE THE   TOY, AND IN A SECOND STATE, DIRECTS CURRENT TO OTHER MEANS WHICH OPERATE OTHER MOVEMENTS OF OTHER PARTS OF THE TOY, SUCH AS FLAPS AND WHISTLES.

" TOY HAVING CAPACITANCE SWITCH Filed sept'. 1e, i968 2 sheets-sheet 1INVENT OR ZEN KICHI NOZAKI ATTORNEY -Feb.2,1971 t zENKiczHI NOZAK.3,559,336

l Toy HAVING CAPACITANCESWITCH Filed sept. Ales, 1968 2 sheets-sheet zINVENTOR zENmcHl Noz/ml l ATTORNEY United States Patent O 3,559,336 TOYHAVING CAPACITANCE SWITCH Zenkichi Nozaki, Tokyo, Japan, assignor toAsahi Tradving Company, Limited, Tokyo, Japan, a corporation of JapanFiled Sept. 16, 1968, Ser. No. 762,269 Int. Cl. A63h 33/26 U.S. Cl.46-247 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A- self-propelled motorizedtoy whose movement is controlled by the distance between it and anotherobject, such as a human operator. A transistor oscillator, resonant tankcircuit, capacitive device whose capacitance is determined by thedistance between it and the object connected to the resonant tankcircuit, and a transistorized amplifier are connected together in such amanner that the increase or decrease in capacitance of the capacitivedevice causes a decrease or increase in the input signal applied to theamplifier. The amplifier is connected to a'relay switch which in a firststate directs current from a power source to a motor which operates tomove the toy, and in a second state, directs current to other meanswhich operate other movements of other parts of the toy, such as flapsand whistles.

This invention relates to motorized toys which are controlled by acapacitive device whose capacitance is determined by the distancebetween it and another object.

. In order for toys to be commercially successful, they should havecertain characteristics. For example, they should arouse the curiosityof the operator. They should have motion. -And they should be simple tooperate.

An object of this invention is to build a toy which is controlled by therelative position of the operator to produce movement toward or awayfrom the operator and to produce other motion of parts of the toy, thusattaining a more amusing toy and increasing its commercial value.

The foregoing and other objects of this invention are attained in anillustrative embodiment thereof, which comprises a toy animal havingmovable legs operated by an electric motor and various shafts and gears,and also having other movable parts such as movable ears, tongue andmeans for producing noise. Contained within the toy are a transistoroscillator connected to a resonant tank circuit, a transistorizedamplifier, a capacitive device whose capacitance is determined by thedistance between the toy and the operator, switch means, battery, motormeansy and various shafts and gears for driving the legs.

When the toy is initially started, the switch means causes themotormeans to be energized thereby causing the shafts and gears to movethe legs. The toy is moved until it comes within a certain distance ofthe operator. This decreases the capacitance of the capacitive device.The impedence of the resonant tank circuit is increased and a signal issupplied to the transistorized amplifier of a magnitude suicient to turnit on. The amplifier produces suiicient current to operate the switchmeans, which in turn, disconnects the battery from the motor, andhencecauses the legs to stop moving. Concurrently, the battery is switched byanother switch means to intermittently supply current to a relay whichoperates a lever, which lever in turn operates to expand and contractPatented Feb. 2, 1971 a bellows. The bellows is placed within the animalin a position such as to move a series of levers to move parts of thetoy, such as ears and tongue of an animal. Also, a whistle is placed inthe bellows such that eX- pansion and contraction thereof will ca-use anintermittent noise.

A feature of this invention is the use of a capacitive device which hasits capacitance determined by the distance between it and anotherobject, to control the movement of a motorized toy and to controlmotions of parts of the toy.

These and other objects and features of this invention will become moreevident from a consideration of the following detailed description anddrawing, in which:

FIG. 1 depicts the motive mechanism for moving the legs of anillustrative embodiment of this invention;

FIG. 2 depicts the mechanism for moving various parts of theillustrative embodiment;

FIG. 3 depicts a schematic diagram of the control circuit of theillustrative embodiment; and

FIG. 4 depicts, pictorially, an illustrative toy animal in conjunctionwith a human operator.

Turning now to FIGS. l and 4, the movable toy animal 44 may be operatedby a child 43 in a manner to be described hereinafter in greater detail.The legs 5, 6, 13, 12 of the toy animal 44, which may be a dog, areoperated by the mechanism depicted in FIG. 1.

The motor 1 of FIG. l, is energized through terminal leads A and B, anddrives a rotatable shaft 4 via a series of gears 3 and shaft 2. The legs5, 6, 12, 13 are movably connected to frame 7 by rods 8 and 14. Frame 7is disposed inside of the toy animal 44. The rods 8 and 14 may be asingle bearing shaft attached to the frame for each leg. The gears 3`are also movably disposed on the frame by shafts. The shaft 4 is crankshaped at both ends to produce offset reciprocating motion to the frontlegs 5, 6. The shaft 4 is also connected near the ends of the forwardlegs 5, 6 at a predetermined distance from the nonsurface contactingends thereof. 'l'he ends also have holes 9 therein through which rod 8is disposed. This arrangement enables the legs 5, 6 to be moved in aback-forth motion. The shaft 4 is held axially in a stationary positionby plates 16y which are connected to the rod 8. Connected to each of thecrank ends of shaft 4 is an offset shaft 10, 11. The other ends of theshafts 10, 11 are connected movably to the nonsurface contacting ends ofrear legs 12, 13. The crank shape of the shaft 4 produces areciprocating motion of the shafts 10, 11 thereby producing a back-forthmotion of the legs 12', 13'.

With the described motive mechanism, operation of the motor 1 causesrotation of gears 3, and rotation of shaft 4, and the reciprocatingmovement of the shafts 10, 11 and the consequent sequential back-forthmovement of legs S, 6, 12, 13.

In FIG. 2, there is shown a representation of a head of a toy animal,such as the dog 44 of FIG. 4. Connected movably to the head 7, by ashaft 23, is a single piece 24, having a tab portion 24A located insidethe head, and a pair of ear portions 24B located outside of the head.Also located within the head 7 is an L-shaped tongue piece 21 held byrod 22 directly above the bellows 19. The tongue piece may be rotatedabout the rod 22 as the bellows expands and contracts. The expansion ofthe bellows 19` is limited by stops 20. When the bellows 19 expands, theupper part of the L-shaped piece 21 is moved forward to move tab portion24A, and thus cause the ear portions 24B to move. At the same time thelower part of the L-shaped tongue piece is lowered from the positiondepicted by the dotted lines 21A to the depicted position. When theforegoing is done intermittently, the ears 24B will diap repeatedly, andthe tongue 21 will move repeatedly.

Located on bellows 19 is a whistle 26, which is of a type that will makenoise when air is being forced from the bellows. When the bellows isrepeatedly expanded and contracted, noise will be emitted from thewhistle. The bellows 19 is operated by an L-shaped trip lever 18, whichis depicted resting on a pentagonal shaped rest stop 27, and which isrotatable about rod 53. The trip lever 18 is operated by solenoid 17which may be energized through terminals C and lD. Switch 25, which isof a type that will periodically open and close, is located betweenterminal D and the solenoid 17. The periodic opening and closing ofswitch 25 will cause trip lever 18 to expand and contract the bellows 19periodically. This, as just discussed, causes the ears 24B and tongue 21to move repeatedly, and also causes the whistle 26 to emit sounds.

The motor 1 and solenoid i17 are controlled by the control circuitdepicted in FIG. 3, which circuit may be contained within the toy 44.The circuit comprises three portions, an oscillator portion 56, anamplifier portion 57, and a switching portion 58.

The oscillator portion 56 comprises an oscillator transistor 32,inductor 30, capacitor 50, and bias resistors 49 and S1, and outputresistor 48. Battery 31 supplies bias voltage to all of the transistorswhen switch 41 is closed. Connected to the transistor 32 via a capacitor52 is a resonant tank circuit 28 comprising a divided inductor and acapacitor and a variable capacitive device 29, having one plate locatedwithin the toy and another plate which may be formed of another objectsuch as a human operator 43. The plate 43 is grounded. The capacitivedevice may be of a known type such as one having an aluminum plate asone electrode thereof.

When switch 41 is closed, the transistor oscillator is energized bybattery 31 and is operated at a selected frequency. When the capacitanceof capacitor 29 is decreased, due to the increase in distance betweenthe toy containing the device 29 and the operator, which acts as plate43, a high impedence is established at the coil side of capacitor 52.This causes an increase in voltage applied to the amplifier transistor33 via diode 35. The oscillator assists in making the circuit moresensitive to changes in the capacitance of device 29.

The amplifier portion 57 comprises two series connected transistors 33,34, bias resistor 47, and input resistors 45, 46. The increased voltageresulting from decreased capacitance of device 29, is applied to thetransistors 33, '34, amplified thereby, and applied to coil 36 to causeits energization.

Before the coil 36 is energized, armature `37 is closed against contact39. Thus, at the start of the operation, when switch 42 is closed andwhen there is no current in coil 36, battery 38 supplies current via theclosed contacts 37 and 39, and terminal B to motor 1, and the current isreturned via terminal A and closed switch 42 to the battery 38. Whencoil 36 is energized, the electrical connection between armature 37 andcontact 39 is broken, and an electrical connection is establishedbetween armature 37 and contact 40.

In this latter condition, with switch 42 closed, battery 38 will supplycurrent to coil 17 (of FIG. 2), via closed contacts 37, 40 and terminalC; and the current will return to battery 38 through intermittentlyoperated switch 25, terminal D and closed switch 42. This will causemovement of the ears 24B, tongue 21, and emission of sound from whistle26 in the manner described above.

The operation of this toy is simple enough for a child to learn andexecute. Switches 41 and 42, which are positioned on the toy 44 of FIG.4 are first closed, and the toy 44 is set at a distance from the child43. The motor will operate immediately and cause the legs 5, 6, 12, 13to move as described above and the toy 44 will move toward or away fromthe operator 43 depending on the direction that it is headed. Thetransistor oscillator 56 is caused to operate. As the toy 44 comes closeto the child 43, the value of the capacitance between plate 29 and thegrounded plate 43, which is the child, decreases, causing the resonanttank circuit 28 to place a high impedance on the coil side of capacitor52. This causes higher voltage to be placed on the input of theamplifier transistors 33, 34, and to cause energization of coil 36. Thiscauses electrical connection between armature 37 and contact 39 to bebroken and an electrical connection to be established between armature37 and contact 40. This causes motor 1 to stop, and concurrently causescoil 17 to be energized thus causing the ears 24B (of FIG. 2) and tongue21 to move, and the whistle 26 to make noises, in the manner describedabove.

If the child operator 43 should move away from the toy, the capacitanceof the device 29 will increase and cause a decrease in the impedance ofthe resonant tank circuit 28, thereby decreasing the signal supplied tothe transistor amplifier 57. This causes current to be removed from thecoil 36, thereby causing armature 37 to break electrical connection withcontact 40, and to establish contact with contact 39. Current is removedfrom solenoid 17, and supplied instead to motor 1, thus causing legs 5,6, 12, 13 to move as described. The toy will thus again move toward theoperator until the distance between the toy and the operator is such asto make the capacitance of device 29 of a value sufiicient to makeamplifier 57 operate and the foregoing steps to be repeated.

The grounded conductor or plate 43, although described in terms of ahuman operator, such as a child, may also be any other type of groundedconductor, such as a radiator. Also, with slight modifications evidentto workers in the art, the circuit may be changed to cause the reverseof the foregoing operations, that is, to make the toy to move away fromthe operator until a certain dis tance is reached between the toy andthe operator, whereupon, the ears, tongue, and whistle are caused tooperate.

kIt is to be understood that the foregoing is only illustrative of theprinciples of this invention and that numerous modifications andadditions may be made by one ,skilled in the art without departing fromthe spirit and scope of this invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A motorized toy controlled by the distance between said toy andanother object, comprising capacitive device having the capacitancethereof determined by the distance between said toy and said object,

electrical energy source means,

motor means for moving said toy, and

electrical switch means responsive to said capacitance of saidcapacitive device for connecting said electrical energy source means tosaid motor means thereby to cause said motor means to move and to stopsaid toy, said electrical switch means comprising a transistorizedamplifier, a transistor oscillator, a resonant tank circuit, means forconnecting said resonant tank circuit to said capacitive device wherebydecrease of said capacitance upon said toy being a selected distancefrom said object causes said resonant tank circuit to place a signal onsaid transistorized amplifier suflicient to cause operation of saidtransistorized amplifier, first relay means responsive to signals fromsaid transistorized amplifier for switching said electrical energysource means to energize said motor means, and whereby increase of saidcapacitance upon increase of the distance between 5 said toy and saidobject causes decrease of said sig- References Cited nal on saidtransistorized amplier to c ause de- UNITED STATES PATENTS energrzatlonof sald first relay means, and sa1d motorized means comprises at leasttwo moveable legs 3163960 1/1965 'Il/Vaya et al 46-247 having a commonaxis, an electrical motor and shaft 3,254,313 5/1966 Atkms et al-20o-521D( means driven by said electrical motor for moving said 5335009`8 10/1967 COmP et al' 27:5*145 (4) legs about said axis, saiddistance between said toy and said object being travelled by said atleast two LOUIS G' MANCENE Pnmary Exammer moveable legs. R. F. CUTTING,Assistant Examiner

